Santa Ana?? (Irvine, Orange, Costa Mesa: buying a home, buying, living)

[Coldjensens]

Things have gotten a bit worse. I still stay in French Park when I am in OC which is about 1/3 of the year. I still walk to the office from French Park with no problems. Santa Ana definitely does not feel as safe as it did three years ago, but I would not call it bad. It is the same old C88p, just a bit more of it and the police and City seem to be a bit less responsive than they were.

Crime statistics are up in Santa Ana, but they are up across the entire country. It is cyclical. I am not sure anyone knows why.

Although I am not a fan, I must say that Bill Clinton's "100,000 cops on the street" program helped Santa Ana immensely. Santa Ana's COP (community oriented policing) also helped immensely. Policemen from across the country used to come to Santa Ana to see how it was done. Unfortunately, they seem to have given that up.

If I was going to return to OC full time, I would certainly consider living in Santa Ana. My biggest concern would be schools, not crime. I cannot think of anywhere in OC where schools would not be a concern. Even the "good" schools aside from the five we have been discussing are not that great and the other 'good" schools are in places that I would not want to and could not afford to live. That is one of the reasons that we moved.

They have OCHSA for the older kids and I have heard that the new Segerstrom high is decent as well. Villa middle school was good, but it was sliding when we left. The elementary schools would be our biggest concern. John Muir started sliding long before we left and we ended up with several kids in private schools.

The people who were asking about Santa Ana here are younger and have no kids. I think that they would enjoy the new condos /apts across from Main place. They could walk to the Bower Museum, Discovery Science center, Main place mall and Santiago Park. lets not forget Pat & Oscars is right there too! No one who does not live there is likely to be walking around those condos. The closest residential areas to them are Park Santiago and Floral Park, both nice areas. The downtown area can be fun, both the Tijuana part (4th street east of main) and the west of main areas are fun. The freeway access is great from Santa Ana. With an almost zero commute, they could do a lot worse.

They would also probably enjoy living downtown, possibly in the artists lofts, or in one of the better neighborhoods. It would be hard to find a rental in Floral Park though.

[cobmw]

A 17-year old boy was killed yesterday in Santa Ana in a gang related shooting. In many towns this would come as a surprise, but not in Santa Ana.

[Coldjensens]

Actually that is untrue. A murder is always a surprise. Especially to the victim.

In 2006 Santa Ana had 26 murders out of about 320,000 people. that is a high rate compared to some south OC cities, but not sufficiently high to justify a statement that it is not surprising. Santa Ana is right at the national average for murders. Since this average includes the small and wealthy cities, not just large cities, that is a pretty good position for a city the size of Santa Ana. Santa Ana is a major city. Compared to Detroit or Washington DC, Santa Ana is not even a contender.

Even Irvine which some people claim is the safest city in California, had 4 murders in 2006 (and 634 burglaries - a higher burglary rate per capita than Santa Ana).
** Irvine is not the safest. it does not even make the list. Although Mission Veijo is second behind Amherst NY on some lists. ***


Yes Santa Ana has crime. Is it a horrid crime rate place? No. It is about average (actually somewhat below the national average). Further, like many areas, the crime generally occurs in certain locations. It is a big place. Avoid those areas and the crime rate is not bad at all. You could readily pick portions of Santa Ana with the same population as Irvine and the crime rates for those portions of Santa Ana would rival Irvine. You could take a very small portion of Irvine and a very small portion of Santa Ana and the Irvine crime rate would be a lot higher, depending on which portions you selected. Los angeles has neary double the murder rate of Santa Ana and there are a lot of places in Los angeles that are considered great places to live. You cannot brand a whole city based on some specific areas.

Even Detroit, currently labeled the most dangerous city in the country, is very nice in some parts and has very low crime in those parts of the City.


The worst crime rate in Santa Ana is for car theft. It is even higher than LA. I wonder why that is? Perhaps it is because so many people park their cars on the streets overnight. Maybe it includes automobile break ins.

[Coldjensens]

I found a different list. Here Irvine is ranked 11 and M.V. is ranked 4th.

Santa Ana is somewhere in the middle of these lists.

[cobmw]

OK you got me. I don't argue with facts. It's just that the place looks bad and makes me feel uneasy. So I'm not surprised that a gang killing would happen. There used to be many more of these years ago. I think that the Santa Ana Police Dept got a hold on things and have tamed it down. They do respond very fast whenever our house alarm (in Floral Park) goes off by accident - within a few minutes. Heck our alarm goes off in Colorado and we don't see the police for 30 minutes.

There still remains something about the place that scares me. Hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I go out at night in SA - even in my own yard. Where we spend most of our time now it's the complete opposite. Never lock the car at parking lots or even overnight in my driveway. Don't bother locking the back door unless I plan to be gone all day. Never, ever look around to see who is close to me when going from car into store even at night. There may be some cold months of cold weather outside of CA but there is also a lot of peace of mind.

[Coldjensens]

I hear you on the locks. We moved away as well, but crime was not a significant issue in the decision. We moved for other reasons. However, it is nice to live away from a city. Santa Ana is not horrid, but it is pleasant to go from a City to a place with virtually no crime at all. Cities are more exiting, but more dangerous, noisy, tense, and dirtier. It is boring where we live now by some people's standards, but I am ready for this kind of boring (i.e. drop a fishing pole into the river in the front yard, watch bald eagles soar around, follow a deer path to a pond. Hooh Humm). i think that we can lock our doors. I am not certain. We never had any reason to. Some of the doors do not have locks though. If we locked the doors then we would have to get up to open the door every time one of the kids friends came to visit. I would prefer to have them just knock and enter on their own.

[fipster]

Santa Ana has way too many Mexicans. I think that any city with too much of any one race is not for me. Westminster has too many Vietnamese and Newport Beach has too many Whites. I think a well mixed city is desirable. That's why I prefer Irvine or Huntington Beach.

[Coldjensens]

I guess, if you call white and Asian a mix. that covers 90% plus of Irvine. Santa Ana is more diverse than Irvine, it is mostly white and Latino, but has a slightly larger mix of other races than Irvine.

I cannot think of any City in Orange County that has much diversity.

[nomiee]

I suggest live in Tustin, work in Sanata Ana if he has to.

[mtb2008]

We lived in Santa Ana in a "safer" area near the 22 FWY and Grand. When they started stealing quarter panels off the cars in our complex, and my husband's motorcycle was stolen, we got the heck out. It has a lot of potential, but just isn't what it could be. Personally, I would not recommend you move to Santa Ana.